Ohio State Still A Holiday Riddle

Big 10 Will Provide Answer

Most of the packages are already open, and out there in full view. They have been revealed in the opening weeks of this college basketball season, and now they stand at attention, ready for inspection, review and some sort of judgment.

That is the purpose of any season's opening weeks, weeks that separate the chaff from the wheat, the cut-rate knockoffs from the real things. True contenders assert themselves, cheap pretenders expose themselves and strengths are affirmed, weaknesses are magnified and some order takes shape as conference play approaches.

But here, cluttering this neat-and-tidy process, rests Ohio State, still wrapped up as tightly as some gift under a Christmas tree. No matter that the Bucks returned all five starters from a year ago, and 11 of their 13 players. No matter that they returned their top four scorers, and their top four rebounders, and 86 percent of their points, and 83 percent of their rebounds.

Nor does it help to know that one of them, sophomore guard Greg Simpson, emerged from high school as Ohio's Mr. Basketball. Or that another of them, sophomore forward Charles Macon, did the same as Indiana's Mr. Basketball. Or that the most talented of them, sophomore swingman Derek Anderson, came close to being Kentucky's Mr. Basketball. Or that the most important of them, senior forward Lawrence Funderburke, was once considered a lock lottery pick.

These Buckeyes (6-3), despite that impressive resume, are still a mystery, a team searching for its character, a group groping toward an uncertain future-even after their 69-67 consolation victory over Boston College Thursday at the Maui Classic.

Their viewing, in fact, is still 11 days off and not scheduled to occur until they start their Big 10 season at home against Iowa. That is why their coach, Randy Ayers, very simply says: "January 4th is going to be our most important game."

It is an annual ritual, an insidious habit, a common phenomena on any campus a great recruiting class appears. The freshmen are heralded, and excitement surrounds them. They are viewed as saviors, and expectations for them are raised. They are handed instant stardom and not expected to suffer through periods of adjustment and growing pains.

That is just what unfolded in Columbus last season, when Macon and Simpson and Anderson showed up to join ranks with Funderburke and shooting guard Jamie Skelton. Yet reality is a demanding taskmaster, and after those young Bucks won nine of their first 11, it presented its bill and demanded payment.

Now they would go 8-10 in the Big 10. Now they would go into the off-season off a desultory first-round loss in the NIT to in-state rival Miami.

Their staggering finish raised questions about their future, no matter the number of starters they would return, and then those questions only multiplied when Funderburke went under the knife on June 11 to clear up tendinitis in both knees. But after the surgery, he went into virtual seclusion, rehabilitated mostly on his own, gained 32 pounds and returned in the fall at a chunky 252.

He now neither looked nor performed like a lottery pick, and when practice officially opened Oct. 30, he could go for no longer than 15 minutes. When he jumped, he rose no higher than a suburban phone book, and now he moved with none of the quickness that once defined his offensive game.

Right then, Ayers started aiming for the Big 10 season, proclaiming that his Bucks could not be fully judged until then. He now pushed Funderburke to lose weight, pulled him from the starting lineup and finally settled on the rotation that would carry him into the New Year.

His shooting guard would be Skelton, a senior streakier than the stock market. His point guard would be Simpson, even though-Ayers explains-"He's still got to develop, from a point-guard standpoint, that he's got to get the ball to the open man. In high school he created for himself off the dribble. Now he's got to create for the other guys."

He would start Anderson, a burgeoning star, as a swingman, and underneath hope for the best from the quartet of 6-foot-7-inch junior Rickey Dudley, 6-9 junior Antonio Watson, 6-11 sophomore Nate Wilbourne and 6-11 redshirt freshman Gerald Eaker. (Macon, as if to prove the lunacy of recruiting ratings, would be buried deep on the bench.)

"Anderson," Ayers says now, "has developed a lot quicker than we thought. But the others are still trying to find their niche and understand their roles within our thing. It takes awhile. You have to settle into your rhythm."

"But," says Skelton, "Lawrence is still our sixth man. That's a joke. He's our most important player. He's older. He's the most renowned. He's smart. Put that all together, he's a good player. We need him. When he gets back in the (starting) lineup, it'll make us all better."